1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an image management apparatus for managing an image acquired through an examination using a medical image acquisition device such as a capsule endoscope.
2. Related Art
In recent years, an examination using a capsule endoscope that is introduced into a subject, such as a patient, for capturing an inside of the subject has been known in a field of an endoscope. A capsule endoscope is a device having an imaging function and a wireless communication function mounted in a casing having a shape of a capsule with a size capable of being introduced into the digestive tract of a subject. The capsule endoscope captures the inside of the subject to generate image data, and sequentially transmits the image data wirelessly to an outside of the subject. The image data wirelessly transmitted from the capsule endoscope is temporarily stored in a receiving device provided at the outside of the subject, and then, transferred to an image management apparatus, such as a work station, from the receiving device. Various image processes are performed to the acquired image data in the image management apparatus, whereby a series of images including organs in the subject is generated.
It takes about eight hours for one examination using the capsule endoscope described above, and as much as about 60,000 images are acquired during this examination. Therefore, it takes so much time to observe all of these images. In addition, these images include many images unnecessary for diagnosis, such as images of an outside of the subject or images formed by repeatedly capturing the same site by the capsule endoscope stagnating in the subject. In view of this, a technique of extracting an image useful for diagnosis from a series of images, and presenting the extracted image to a user has conventionally been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-75163 discloses a technique of generating a moving image from an image designated through a user's operation and image groups before and after the designated image.